Agnes growls toward the pond full of lily pads. “Well, we better not have a ton of them. One is fucking bad enough.”
“I agree,” Trinity says. “Get on with it, Gwyn. We can’t go making accusations willy-nilly against a councilwoman.”
“Well, how’s this for evidence?” I ask, frustrated with their line of questioning. “When Archie and I threw a fireball at the eerie fog hovering above the pond, Alys Morgan flew down from the trees, glowing with green and purple wings flapping like a bird behind her back. She struck him with a bolt of fairy magic and sent him into the woods. Next, she came after me, but I had time to cast a protection barrier spell.”
Tanner gapes at me. “All this time, she’s been hiding and working to obtain a place on the council to manipulate us.”
“Well, I do declare,” Shane says. “Alys put up one helluva front. I never imagined she was responsible.”
I shake my head. “Of course not. She pretended to care about protecting the Bearsden children because she wanted them for herself.”
“I’ve had an excellent working relationship with her,” Elijah says. “Should I try to reason with her?”
Archie shakes his head. “Not in her mental state. She’s not willing to negotiate. In her mind, those are her children now.”
“What a narcissistic bitch,” Spence says. “Conniving, too. She would have loved ex-Mayor Manley.”
Tanner glances back at the misty fog. “Did you pierce the protective bubble at all?”
“Naw,” Archie replies. “And I didn’t get another opportunity after Alys attacked. Gwyn had no success alone either.”
“Gwynedd, what can you tell us about the protective bubble she’s created?” Leslie asks.
“It was impenetrable, even with Archie and me combining our energy,” I reply. “I hurled as large a sphere of magic as I could form at her, but I missed. She’s protected by the barrier now. Plus, we have no idea how to get the children out of there once we break its seal.”
Zoe taps her lips, deep in thought. “Could the air bubble Alys is hiding the kids in float to the top?”
“Wouldn’t it be great if it were that easy?” Tyler asks. “But I suspect it’s more complicated than we can imagine.”
“Only one fucking solution,” Agnes says. “We gotta form a circle and combine our energies. Create a magic laser beam.”
Skye eyes the hazy strip of white mist. “I’m getting bad vibes about this plan. Do we even know what will happen when we pierce the bubble?”
“What if it hurts the children?” Ronnie asks, wringing her hands. “Our Luna.”
Derek wraps a burly arm around her. “They’ll be careful. You can do this without hurting the children, right?”
We glance back and forth between us but don’t answer him. The truth is, we don’t know what will happen. In the distance, the crunching of gravel echoes in the woods—an uneven rhythm in the steps. Trinity puts her fists on her hips.
“In the name of all the gods, who is coming up here on this frigid morning?”
Seamus Duffy turns the corner, wearing a long black winter coat and limping with his cane. That hike from the trailhead must have been hard on him. He waves as he approaches, his eyes searching for me. A faint smile curls his mouth when he finds me in the circle.
“Dr. Duffy, you should not be here,” Leslie says. “This is not your fight.”
Trinity approaches him. “I appreciate your desire to help, but you shouldn’t get involved.”
Archie walks to him, holding his side. “How did you know we were here? Did someone contact you?”
“No,” he replies, staring at me. “I was alerted to danger in our midst.”
Archie glances at me. “Oh, right. Still, you should not be here. Gwyn is fine and can defend herself.”
“Gwynedd confided in me about her suspicions of a Tylwyth Teg’s presence in Bearsden. I assume you have found her here, taking refuge in the bog.”
“Aye. Turns out Alys Morgan is the culprit. We’re about to form a magic laser to pierce the protective layer. If we can create an opening big enough, one of us can attempt to go in there and rescue the children.”
“The councilwoman? That is certainly unexpected.” Seamus limps to the bog and chants. His hand radiates magic, more yellow than amber. “And how do you suppose you’ll retrieve these children living within the air bubble? Will they not drown before you pull them out?”
Ronnie darts to the side of the pond, her frosty breath expelling as she pants. “He’s right. Luna will drown. I sense the danger throughout my entire body.” She hugs herself, squeezing tightly.
My sixth sense tugs at my insides as well. “We must consider Ronnie’s instincts. Mine is sending signals, too.”
“What are we gonna do then? Nothing?” Trinity asks. “We have to try, at least?”
Agnes approaches the bog and raises her hand, an amber glow emanating from her palm as she chants. “I sense a weakness in the far right of the fog where the haze swirls in and out. We can break through the barrier there without affecting the rest of the bubble. I bet my life on it.”
“I realize I’m an Unremarkable and can’t gauge the effectiveness of your magic,” Derek says. “But my Luna is in there. Please, don’t do it unless you’re sure you can without hurting her and the other kids.”
“Not to rain on your parade, Agnes,” Tyler says. “But what do we do after we break the seal? The children are safe in the fairy’s bubble chamber, or whatever you want to call it. But who’s gonna get them out?”
Skye nods. “I don’t know if it’s intuition, but those nasty vibes are giving me an unsettling sensation again.”
Spence shoots his hand up. “Me. I told you already I can hold my breath as long as a deep-water diver, and I swim fast. I’ll get them out. Screw your bad vibes.”
“I care about getting Luna and those kids out as much as everyone else here,” Tanner says. “But the temperature of that water is almost freezing. You’ll get hypothermia. Please, don’t do it.”
Spence hugs his partner. “Chill. I’ll be fine.”
